Sorc: To Spirit or not to Spirit?

[Vladster]

Since my first ever growing HC char is almost in NM and going well I am trying to figure out to distribute attribute points according to gear... The thing is that I don`t really have any gear yet (sniff...) except lidless. I will likely be using some simple runewords like lore until something drops or I am able to trade for some mid items...

The thing I am contemplating now is the shield. As a double tree sorc I will need as many +all skills and FCR as possible, together with mana I will need boosted because of points in vitality. This leaves me wanting to go Spirit route, I have one shield donated, but it will require a lot of investing in strength, and I`m pretty "charmless" :) I would not want to end up having a sorc with 156 str and weak life struggling in NM or hell, but again since I am poor I will not be able to afford more expensive gear. Hence I need a sane advice on what to do... and if you have some ideas on how to make up for str through items please share them with me.

Thanks!
V

[PhatTrumpet]

I personally don't think 'Spirit' has any place on hardcore as a primary shield. It's good on softcore, and on weapon switches for pre-buffing (like CtA), but that's about it in my book. Keep in mind that this is coming from someone who doesn't even question whether to get max block or not. You don't sound like you're going for a max block build, so maybe it doesn't matter how much blocking your shield has, but I find that archer-type monsters at times can be the most life-threatening in Hell, so I always go for max block (with the exception of IK Barbs).

People still seem to make 'Spirit' Monarchs work. If you play defensively enough that you don't need much blocking at all, 'Spirit' might be a viable option. With a Sorc it would be best to also have a decent EShield and decent resists. You said "double tree sorc" though, so I don't imagine you have a very good EShield. It doesn't sound like you have the best resists gear either, but Wizzy is pretty easily traded for.

So I guess to me this is more of a block vs. vita question than a "should I dump all these points into str" question. You probably already have around 80-100 str, so getting to 156 would cost you about 100-150 life. Counter that with the 44 life granted from the shield (it gives 22 vit, right?) and you're not talking about a huge difference. Getting all the str will also allow your sorc to wear just about anything she finds later on. Since I assume you're already going the vita route, I would go ahead and shoot for the 'Spirit' shield and aim for 105% FCR (no block plus slow 'porting is a death wish).

[Nilaripper]

The things that make a sorc really good are the charms, for example vita gcs or life skillers.If u start poor u got none of it.My sorc uses the eth spirit + occy on switch, but i have torch and anni. I teleport with wizzy+ss and max block.
For poor starters i do not recommend using spirit.(no max block and simply too heavy).

[Silkweed]

The way I see it, for HC sorcies, there are only two good shields: Stormshield and Whitstan's Guard. My sorceress is still fairly poor, so I don't have things like SS, Shako or even a Wizzy, but I use a Whitstan's socketed with a perfect diamond, and that seems to do the trick just fine. Sure, I don't get faster caster or even +skills on the thing, but the blocking on it keeps me alive, and the dexterity I save goes into life, and that's all I'm concerned about in HC. If I do find a SS, I'll have to rebuild in order to get the strength, but I'm okay with that since it's not going to happen any time soon. Hell Andy doesn't always treat me right.

All of my sorceresses have been the teleport/cold variety though, so maybe I'm not the best person to talk to about it.

[Stimm]

Actually Rhyme is a good shield too , especially for low budget. I always like an upgraded Mosers too, but most of my sorcs used whistans and never had a loss

[Full_Circle]

Using Spirit as your main shield on a Sorceress may be viable, but I would say it is not viable with a very limited budget. Of course, if, as PT suggested, you've already invested 100+ points in strength, you may as well finish it off. If you haven't... accept that your first sorceress will have poor damage, stick on a whitstan's, and do the best you can until you've collected enough gear/charms to make a better one.

edit: Since this has become a general shield discussion... Upgraded Visceratuant is, I would say, one of the best mid-range price options out there. I would rank the "budget" shields like so: 1) Whits/Up'd Mosers/Up'd Visceratuant (depending on your needs) 2) Rhyme 3) BSoD 4) Spirit...

Lidless doesn't even get a spot...

[Stimm]

Totally forgot about Visc defender. Used to love that shield upgraded. Man how long has it been since I played?

[YellowDyeNo5]

Big fan of gerke's myself. 74% blocking for a sorc IIRC, and the mdr and pdr are great for eshield sorcies. The 20-30 resists on top of that doesn't hurt much either, and can allow many builds to put a -req jewel in it to bring the str req down to 114.

[Tai.]

Meh, I personally have a HUGE soft spot for the Prismatic Tower Shield of Deflecting someone did up when I was still playing, (Sip is my first thought), was so unique and so pretty with good block speed/%/Resists.

Cheers
-Tai

[DudSpud]

Spirit for poor sorcs? Absolutely. In a sword. If you are like me and have a hard time finding the perfect orb with +3 to the skills you use, then a +2 all from the spirit sword, in addition to the FCR, mana, and vit. And the strength reqs are very nice. What else are you gonna use at lvl 25?

But that's just me. I was using pDia Sigon's til Hell in my first untwinked meteorber. I'll go sit back in the corner now.

DudSpud

[Baranor]

alllright here is the lamo approach.

My sorc had a wizard spike and amosers, no block, 1400 life/mana, 5 pts es, no telekinesis, and I tellied around in hell at 9 fps.

If you know what you're doing (and I have been doing this since 2000) you can forgo about 70-75% of the safety procedures as they're useless redundancies. Yadda yadda lag, yadda yadda dead, well, we all die, and if you lag more than two seconds your sorc is dead anyhow.